12/30/08 2008 year end update…

It’s been over a year now since I was fired by KTTV. I never expected to have this much time off but I’ve taken advantage of it by doing some things I’ve never been able to do before…especially writing and traveling. I have to admit that after this unexpected sabbatical I’m looking forward to going back to work in TV News. I can’t say where that will be, but it will hopefully be soon and I promise to let you know.

Now that I’m back in town for a while I’m going to try to keep the website updated more often and publish some of your comments. JohnBeard.com has exceeded my expectations with nearly 1.3 million hits in the time it’s been up. I’m still not very sophisticated at running a website so I’m thinking about bringing in some help and adding video commentary in the next month or so.

I must say I’m always glad to read your email and surprised by where visitors to the website live…most of course are in the US (I get no breakdown by state or region but I assume the vast majority of those are from the greater Los Angeles area)…but here’s an analysis of the month on Dec 2008, how and why there are so many international hits is beyond me…random curiosity I suppose, but China and Egypt?

Top 30 of 37 Total Countries

#

Hits

Files

KBytes

Country

1

53717

50.23%

42444

49.82%

713849

50.26%

Network

2

31327

29.29%

25120

29.48%

433597

30.53%

US Commercial

3

12402

11.60%

10513

12.34%

157225

11.07%

Unresolved/Unknown

4

3687

3.45%

2479

2.91%

42681

3.01%

US Educational

5

790

0.74%

632

0.74%

13413

0.94%

US Government

6

746

0.70%

365

0.43%

6895

0.49%

United States

7

676

0.63%

547

0.64%

9883

0.70%

Non-Profit Organization

8

664

0.62%

562

0.66%

7368

0.52%

United Kingdom

9

661

0.62%

523

0.61%

7805

0.55%

Australia

10

592

0.55%

514

0.60%

6118

0.43%

Canada

11

307

0.29%

275

0.32%

3654

0.26%

Germany

12

306

0.29%

256

0.30%

5303

0.37%

US Military

13

243

0.23%

225

0.26%

2892

0.20%

Netherlands

14

130

0.12%

116

0.14%

1698

0.12%

France

15

108

0.10%

92

0.11%

1233

0.09%

Italy

16

100

0.09%

92

0.11%

1100

0.08%

Brazil

17

61

0.06%

55

0.06%

888

0.06%

Old style Arpanet (arpa)

18

54

0.05%

49

0.06%

664

0.05%

Portugal

19

49

0.05%

40

0.05%

455

0.03%

Japan

20

40

0.04%

37

0.04%

415

0.03%

Mexico

21

39

0.04%

36

0.04%

403

0.03%

Spain

22

38

0.04%

35

0.04%

300

0.02%

India

23

37

0.03%

33

0.04%

401

0.03%

China

24

37

0.03%

34

0.04%

401

0.03%

Finland

25

37

0.03%

33

0.04%

401

0.03%

Sweden

26

33

0.03%

30

0.04%

379

0.03%

Poland

27

24

0.02%

22

0.03%

314

0.02%

Luxembourg

28

23

0.02%

23

0.03%

282

0.02%

Dominican Republic

29

4

0.00%

3

0.00%

45

0.00%

Taiwan

30

2

0.00%

1

0.00%

10

0.00%

Egypt

I’m gratified to see there are a fair number of hits from the US military. Ever since my time with the Marines I’ve been a big supporter of the military in general and the Marines in particular.

I’m also find it interesting to check the search strings people use to find JohnBeard.com. They are usually fairly obvious, like “where is John Beard” “john beard KTTV” or “John Beard news anchor”…but I’ve also seen “who’s John Beard dating” and my least favorite “death of John Beard”.

In the next few weeks I’ll rewrite the welcome page and add some new pictures. I promise to update more often and write more blogs…but for now I’d just like to wish everybody a Happy New Year and thank you for your supportive words and promise to watch again when I go back on the air.